Cubs vs. Phillies Preview, Tuesday 8/6, 6:05 CT: Reverse Standings

Some of you have been wondering about these, and today, MLB Trade Rumors revealed their reverse standings; this shows what the 2014 draft order will be.

The Astros are in line to draft first for the third straight year; that's never happened in the nearly 50 years of the draft. What I found most interesting is this clump of teams from fifth to 15th in the reverse-standing order:

5 	Chicago Cubs            49 	62 	0.4414 	12.5
6 	Minnesota Twins 	48 	60 	0.4444 	13.0
7 	San Francisco Giants 	49 	61 	0.4455 	13.0
8 	New York Mets           49 	60 	0.4495 	13.5
9 	Philadelphia Phillies 	50 	61 	0.4505 	13.5
10 	Toronto Blue Jays 	51 	60 	0.4595 	14.5
11 	Toronto Blue Jays 	51 	60 	0.4595 	14.5
12 	Colorado Rockies 	52 	61 	0.4602 	14.5
13 	Los Angeles Angels 	51 	59 	0.4636 	15.0
14 	San Diego Padres 	52 	60 	0.4643 	15.0
15 	Seattle Mariners 	52 	59 	0.4685 	15.5

Note: the Blue Jays are listed twice because they will get a compensatory first-round pick in 2014, as a result of not signing their 2013 first-round pick.

That's three games separating 10 teams, an amorphous mass of teams anywhere from seven to 13 games under .500. I know some of you would like the Cubs to stay at that "high" ranking in the reverse standings (and they currently are just two games "behind" the number four spot, held by the Brewers). Personally, I'd like to see the Cubs win some games. The next three will be against another team in this clump, the Phillies. You'll also note that two of those teams (Giants, Angels) were supposed to be playoff contenders this year.

A final note on the Dodgers' sweep of the Cubs this past weekend: A big part of that is that the Dodgers are on an amazing 32-7 run. In addition to sweeping the Cubs over that span, L.A. has also swept the Giants, Diamondbacks, Nationals, Blue Jays and Reds. They're two losses away from having a 17-game winning streak. The Cubs should do better in Philadelphia, I'd think, than they did at home against a team as hot as the Dodgers, considering the Phillies have lost 13 of their last 14.

Cubs lineup:

DeJesus CF, Lake LF, Rizzo 1B, Schierholtz RF, Castro SS, Castillo C, Barney 2B, Murphy 3B, Jackson P

Phillies lineup:

M. Young 1B, Utley 2B, Rollins SS, Brown LF, Ruf RF, Mayberry CF, Asche 3B, Ruiz C, Kendrick P

Well then. I've heard of most of those guys.

Today's Starting Pitchers

Edwin Jackson Cubs vs. Kyle Kendrick Phillies vs. Phi -- vs. Cubs

Edwin Jackson has had six consecutive good starts in which he's posted a 2.23 ERA and 0.942 WHIP in 40⅓ innings. He's approaching his career averages in those categories and finally appears to be the pitcher the Cubs hoped they were getting when they signed him to that four-year deal last offseason. Current members of the Phillies are hitting .330 (34-for-103) against him, though, so he'll have his work cut out for him to continue his good streak.

Kyle Kendrick has been kind of the converse of Jackson; his last six starts have been awful (7.11 ERA, 1.768 WHIP) after getting off to a good start. Current Cubs are a small-sample-size 6-for-35 (.171) against Kendrick with no home runs.

Today's game is on CSN Chicago.

Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

SB Nation game preview

Please visit our SB Nation Phillies site The Good Phight.

Here's the scoop on game threads for 2013. You'll find the game preview -- like this one -- posting as the first link in the StoryStream™, which will then contain all the overflow threads and the recap. The recap will also be on the front page as a separate post; once I post a game recap, the stream for each game will be retitled "Cubs vs. (Team) (Day of Week) Game Threads" so you can go back and find every thread related to that particular game.

In general, game previews will post two hours before game time. Exception: for day games after night games, that will usually be 90 minutes.

You will also be able to find the First Pitch Thread and all the overflow threads in the box marked "Chicago Cubs Game Threads" at the bottom of the front page (you can also find them in this section link). They will also appear in this StoryStream™. As I've done for each regular-season game for several years now, we'll have the First Pitch thread at five minutes before game time (moved up from actual game time per your requests), then an overflow one hour, two hours and 2:45 after game time.

Discuss amongst yourselves.